Finishing Touches
by DownToTheSea
Summary: Nikola assists Helen in preparing for the Sanctuary's annual Halloween party, but gets a bit distracted along the way.


**A/N: For the final Teslen week prompt: "Halloween." Enjoy! 3**

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"Well, this isn't exactly the place I had in mind for a passionate tryst, but I suppose any old port in a storm…"

Helen finished sprinkling a few candies over the chocolate witch's hat she was bending over, then straightened. Turning to Nikola, who was leaning against the kitchen door with a wide smirk on his face, she raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't ask you here for a passionate tryst, Nikola," she said dryly. "I require your assistance."

"With what?" He eyed the bowls and boxes and utensils piled around her. "Doesn't your butler enjoy this sort of thing more than you do? You know I'm the first to appreciate your many, many talents, my dear, but even I would not say cooking was one of them."

"Those who live in glass houses, Nikola. And he has the day off," Helen said. "He always outdoes himself for Christmas dinner later in the year, so it's the least I can do to repay him. Besides, all anyone wants to eat today is sweets, and I can manage those easily enough."

The Sanctuary had a small Halloween party every year, mostly consisting of scary movies and more chocolate than they could eat. There was also usually a group of residents who went out trick-or-treating, but this year, their first in Hollow Earth, they couldn't afford to take any chances with SCIU finding out about their new location. Helen knew it was disappointing for everyone, so she had determined to make this year's in-house celebration as fun as possible.

"Alright," Nikola said after she outlined this for him. "Fun times for the kiddies, check. Can I hold your hand during the scary parts of the movie?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Only if you help me get everything ready first. I rather underestimated the amount of time it would take to do this alone. Usually Henry helps, but since he's in England with Erika right now…"

"So, with all those sweet and delicious treats in front of you, the first person that popped into your mind to help was yours truly? Aww, Helen. I'm touched." Nikola's hand went over his heart.

"Get in here and start helping, Nikola."

"Alright, alright." Grinning, he came in, rolling up his sleeves and stopping on his way to the sink to wrap his arms around her from behind and plant a kiss on her cheek.

"I would hardly call that helping."

"I'm offering positive encouragement," he said without missing a beat.

"Mmm." Helen started drizzling chocolate over the brims of the witches' hats. She leaned back a little in his arms, enjoying his warmth for a moment, breathing in the smell of wine that always hovered around him.

"Well," Nikola murmured against her neck, "this is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, although I was expecting you to demand a little more work from me."

"If you insist, Nikola. There are some cookies over there that I have the icing outlines done for, perhaps you could start by finishing them?"

He sighed and moved away from her, washing his hands before turning his attention to the cookies.

Helen had been waiting for him to see what they were, and she grinned as the predictable reaction occurred.

"Helen, you enjoy tormenting me, don't you?"

She turned to see him with an indignant expression, holding up one of the vampire cookies she had left on the sheet, small outlined fangs and high-collared cape standing out in black icing.

"Don't get me wrong," Nikola continued, glaring at it as if it had done him a serious personal grievance. "Normally I love it when you torment me, but this is really going too far."

"It's a cookie, Nikola. It isn't going to turn into a swarm of bats and prompt a thirty-minute diatribe about the scientific impossibility of such a thing."

"Ridiculous idea," he muttered. "How anyone could ever – "

"Nikola." She leveled a look at him.

"Fine, fine. I'll do it for you, Helen, but I'm biting this one's head off as soon as it's done." With a satisfied hiss at the thought, he began.

Helen finished off the witches' hats while he worked on the cookies, and then started on the marshmallow ghosts. It didn't occur to her that he was taking a little too long until she heard a muted giggle from behind her.

"Nikola, what are you doing?"

"Making far more interesting vampires than these little caricatures."

She turned around and pinched her nose when she saw what he was holding up. He had done some (quite creative, she would admit) shaving of dough and scraping of the icing outlines she'd laid out. Now, a proud grin plastered on his face, he displayed two tiny doppelgangers of themselves. Cookie Nikola even had a lovingly detailed waistcoat, still drying but unmistakable.

"Dear lord," she said, and laughed despite herself. "What in the world are you planning to do with those?"

"I don't know, but aren't they adorable? Here…" Nikola maneuvered their cookie selves until their hands were pressed together. Unfortunately, he must have pressed them together a little too hard, because cookie Nikola's hand snapped off and fell to the floor.

Helen snorted. Nikola went with it. "Mortally wounded!" he cried. "Alas, I am slain!"

He brought cookie Helen over to hover near Nikola, then said in an exaggerated British accent, "Bloody hell, Nikola, no Shakespeare."

"Tend to me, my beloved!"

"Of course I shall, my love!"

"My darling!"

Helen decided to put a stop to this. Reaching out and snatching the small cookie version of herself from Nikola, she popped it into her mouth in a few bites. (If she would have picked him, there would have been no end of innuendo available for Nikola to use for the next several hours.)

Nikola let out a plaintive noise and stared at her with betrayal in his eyes. "Great work, Helen," he said, holding up his own cookie. "You've went and – and broken his tiny, sugary heart. I hope you're happy now."

"I'm very sorry, Nikola." Helen's lips trembled from suppressed amusement.

Nikola put his cookie back on the sheet. "Condemned to live out the rest of his days with only the pigeons for company…"

"The pigeons might make quick work of him." She could no longer restrain the chortle that burst forth. "And I'm afraid the rest of his days will be rather short, since I have yet to see any leftover snacks at one of our parties."

"Huh. Well, I guess in that case, you might as well do the honors. Better you than Protege, and besides…" In an instant he was next to her, warmth radiating from him as he leaned over to whisper in her ear. "I know how much you love the taste of me."

Helen raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps I'll save him for later, then," she said, voice low. "After we've finished. I would hate to not savor him."

Nikola swallowed. "Oh yes, definitely. You know, I think I'll, uh, just get back to those other cookies now."

Helen smiled. "Excellent idea."


End file.
